Specializing in one sport isn?t the way to go
?You need to decide which sport you?re going to play!?
Every time I here these words I get red in the face, and unfortunately it happens way too often, especially to our younger athletes.
First, let me say this: Most coaches have finally come to the understanding that playing more than one sport is not only good medicine for the kids, but it also makes the kids more athletic. It keeps the kids from being burned out in one sport.
Unfortunately there are still several who feel kids should play just one sport. What some coaches and parents don?t understand is the potential for early burnout and injuries.
See if this sounds familiar. Little Johnny or Mary shows great potential at an early age. Their parents see the next Roger Clemens or Serena Williams, so they put their 5- or 6-year-old in a competitive sports league.
Through the next couple of years training intensifies, which leads to year-round playing. They then join a traveling team, in which a coach suggests they need to give up all of their other interests ? and for the most part give up being a kid.
Winning means recognition, high school championships, college scholarships and even a shot at turning pro. (Of course, in reality, your odds of winning the lottery are better.)
Some coaches tell kids they need to concentrate on one sport and one sport only if they want to be good at it. In my opinion that?s just being selfish. Ask any pro athlete how many sports he or she played as a kid and the answer will be as many as they could.
How in the world can a coach tell a kid she can?t be a cheerleader and play soccer, or Johnny can?t play basketball and baseball? What?s even worse is a coach letting certain kids play certain sports, while keeping others from playing or being involved in something he or she enjoys, only to make them choose one over the other. That?s not right.
Kids specializing in one sport at an early age has blown up in our faces, while successful coaches across the country figured the problem out a long time ago.
In recent studies by several of the top college programs in the country, making a kid choose one sport over another doesn?t work. In fact, the studies show if a kid plays just one sport he or she will more than likely burn out and quit or end up being nothing more than average. On the other hand, kids who play two or more sports are more successful at both sports, as the motor skills they develop can be beneficial from one sport to the other.
Another study shows kids who play one sport are more likely to have short and long-term health issues. Repetitive overuse of muscles when a kid plays one sport accounts for more than half of all sports injuries in middle and high school athletes.
The stress put on kids? bodies, which have not yet fully developed, can often become career-ending by the time these kids are in high school.
Coaches have a great influence on young athletes, and sometimes they forget these are just kids who need a variety of activities to keep things fresh. The only way to do that is by letting them play however many sports they want to. Parents and coaches who push their children too hard at an early age, can easily wipe out a kid?s motivation to play any sport at all.
If a parent is willing to take their kid from one practice to the other and the kid is willing to work hard and devote time and effort to both sports, then who can tell them they can?t?